Karuseru Maki (Maki Carrousel)

Watashi o nugasete / Déshabillez-Moi [Undress Me]

click to zoom

Bunkasha, Tokyo. 2002, 350p., text in Japanese, illustrations, very good hardcover in dj. A memoir written at the age of sixty by Carrousel Maki, who became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s as the first Japanese to undergo sex-reassignment surgery. She subsequently had a successful career as an actress and showgirl. The memoir begins with discussion of a scandal in which she was (falsely she says) accused of marijuana possession in 2001 – narrating the torment of being detained before she was cleared on the charge. The main focus of the book is her experience getting sex reassignment surgery in Morocco, living in Paris, and her life in show business. Discusses her interactions with several famous Japanese actors, writers, and cultural figures. Includes numerous B&W photographs of her at various points in her career